Tonight with your 13 to 17 year old

The prompt

“How has the way you deal with stress changed compared to a couple years ago?”

What to listen for

If they describe healthier coping now, talking to someone, moving their body, giving themselves space, that shows real growth in self-regulation and a sense that they can actually handle hard feelings rather than just being swept up by them.

If they admit stress still gets the better of them sometimes, that's honest and worth meeting without judgment, you can ask what would help without turning it into a project to fix tonight.

If they say it hasn't really changed, that's useful too, it might be worth quietly noticing what coping tools they could use more support building.

What this tells you

How their stress response has evolved shows how much confidence they've built in their own ability to handle hard feelings.